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I wouldn't be without my baby walker!

My friend gave me the Chicco Square baby walker as her baby had grown out of it.I had never had any plans to buy a baby walker as I'd heard vaguely that they were dangerous. However, when I saw the Chicco walker I could not see how it could be unsafe (unless you live somewhere where you have sudden drops downwards or unguarded stairs).

The walker is approx 2 foot by 2 foot in width and depth and stands about 1.5 foot tall.Although the styles vary slightly, my walker has 6 independantly swivelling wheels - like castors that you see on office chairs. The wheels are attached to a square frame that is about 2 inches off the ground. Each side of the walker has a cross frame which supports the top part of the walker, which comprises of a padded seat for baby with a tray in front of it.

The height of the padded seat can be adjusted easily so that as your baby grows you can adjust it so that their feet always touch the floor comfortably.The design of the walker means that even if your baby shoots themselves across the room at speed and crahses into something - they can't trap their fingers as the outer frame of the walker is wider than they can reach (unless your baby has really really long arms!)

We have ended up using this walker with all 3 of our children, from around the age of 4 months, up until about 1 year, when they were more interested in crawling and walking. I found it a really safe place to put them and they definitely liked the fact that they could sit up to play in it - the tray at the front holds plenty of toys to keep them amused.

We never had any accidents with this walker, although it was always used on a ground floor and away from any stairs. It's very sturdy and is definitely built to last. I think that like many things - as long as common sense is applied, this is a great piece of baby equipment.

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"Expensive for amount of use they get."

My reason for buying a baby walker had nothing to do with wanting Joe to walk early it was more a way of satisfying his increasing desire to stand up. Joe was constantly pushing up and made himself totally rigid so that you couldn't put him down - he was wearing us out! I'd seen the baby walkers advertised but felt uncertain as to whether they were a good thing or not. You read about so many accidents with these things and then you hear about it delaying the baby from walking etc. Anyway one wet Sunday afternoon when our arms could no longer stand holding the little porker we headed for Toys R Us (again!). There were quite a few walkers on display and one tended to look pretty similar to the other. Some did have trays on them with toys attached which were nice but I didn't get one of these as I hadn't heard of the make before. After much debate we bought the Chicco one. We had already got a Chicco chair and were very pleased with it and so trusted the make. We also checked it out for sturdiness etc and it seemed very solid. Another couple were also going through the same process and they decided on this one too which reassured me for some reason. The walker has a large white base and 8 wheels. It has green, blue and yellow fabric in squares. The seat is very firm and wipes clean well. There is a big white tray that also cleans nicely. The walker is height adjustable and has 3 different settings. My son is very tall for his age, yet when we brought this walker home it was much too large for him even on its lowest setting. He was 6 months when we bought it and a fair size! The other couple in the shop had a daughter who was about half his size so I reckon her feet might just be touching the floor now! It took a few weeks for him to reach to the floor. The walker came in a large box but was not heavy. We did have a struggle getting it into our car though it is very small. The walker was easy to ass emble it just needed pulling into position. It folds flat for easy storage. Once he could touch the floor he didn't move in it at all. We did all the running round the house business to demonstrate but he just wasn't interested. After a few weeks he started to go backwards and then all of a sudden he got the hang of it. Word of warning here, move everything! He was very fond of the telephone and anything decorative and expensive. I did not allow him in the kitchen in it but I was always careful to move wires out of reach and to cook on the rear rings of the hob. The problem with a walker is that you never know when or where they might appear next (especially if Dad is looking after them and the footie comes on!). I found the walker useful in the respect that it gave Joe a change from sitting and crawling. If boredom crept in a whizz around in his walker would usually help. I knew that he was safe in it as I was very through with checking that nothing was in his reach. I think the problem with these things is when children are not properly supervised yet I would never criticise a parent as it only takes a second for a baby to have an accident in something like this. Yesterday I took Joe for his assessment and I pointed out that he is standing up on his toes. This is said to be very characteristic of chldren who use these walkers. The Health Visitor advised that I take the walker off him now and this should solve the problem. I am not worried that this has put him backwards with his walking. He is 9 and a half months old and is pulling up to a standing position with the furniture. I think however it is something that you need to be aware of when you buy one of these (I wasn't). So with some sadness the walker has gone away. I think it served its purpose but for such a short time that it is not worth buying a new one. I would buy second hand next time if I decided to give one to another baby. Thanks fo r reading.

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At first I was in two minds wether to buy a baby walker at all as a lot of people don't think they are very safe. I didn't have any problems with my first child apart from the fact he got easier access to things he should'nt have like my cd's etc but as far as safty was concerned i had no trouble at all. In the baby book I recieved when I was pregnant the second time it said that 52 out of 54 baby walkers tested were unsafe but it did not state the makes and names of the two safe ones. We decided to go ahead and buy one anyway as our first child loved his walker. We first went to Mothercare World where we saw the chicco walker and we knew that that was the one for us. We called over an assistant who was very unhelpfull, she said that it was the last one in stock and we could not buy the display model ans she did not know when the next delivery was and even if there was going to be one or even the price of it. We left disheartened. We then went to toy's r us at Parkhead forge retail park but it was out of stock there but they were much more helpfull and they knew it cost £34.99 quite expensive for a walker but worth it. they suggested trying toys r us at Govan so we set off and yea ha managed to get one there. When we got it home it was very sturdy and we did the door test which involves raming it hard into the door frame to see if it would crack it didn't and loads of other tests such as if it glided across the floor easily, it did and also for comfort it was well padded and very roomy and got the thumbs up from our little treasure so on the whole if you are looking for a baby walker you can't go wrong with this one